In orthodontics, treatments for achieving alignment of malposed teeth in a subject include applying orthodontic appliances, such as orthodontic aligners, to the subject's teeth. Orthodontic aligners are typically worn over the teeth of the top and/or bottom archforms in order to exert loads to the teeth to induce tooth movements or to retain tooth positions relative to the maxilla and/or mandible. Although they are removable, aligners are typically arranged to be worn for extended periods during the day and/or night.
Aligners are custom-designed, typically in terms of shape and thickness, to the subject's teeth and an orthodontic treatment for exerting desired loading conditions to the teeth. In order to attain a desired correction, a sequence of consecutive treatment stages using a sequence of aligners, respectively configured to exert certain desired loading conditions, may be needed. Generally, the shapes of the aligners and their thickness, among other factors, determine effective loading conditions that may be exerted to the teeth and effective correction that may be attained with each aligner of the sequence.
Under certain circumstances, aligners may be positioned inadequately relative to the teeth when applied thereto, resulting in effective loading conditions that depart from the desired loading conditions. Such circumstances may arise for example in absence of a fixed connection between the teeth and the aligners for holding the aligners in a desired, adequate position, determined for example based on the desired loading conditions. Conventional means for rigidly connecting conventional aligners to teeth include teeth attachments and aligner recesses. For example, a tooth attachment may be disposed on a given tooth. A given aligner, custom-designed to the given tooth and its tooth attachment, may have an aligner recess defined inward its inner surface such that when the given aligner is in the adequate position relative to the given tooth, the tooth attachment is received in the aligner recess, fixedly connecting the given aligner to the given tooth. In use, under some such circumstances, the tooth attachment may become detached from the given tooth, rendering loose any attempted connection between the given aligner and the given tooth. Under other such circumstances, the tooth attachment may need to be clinically detached from the given tooth, for example for the purposes of manufacturing a subsequent aligner based on a subsequent orthodontic treatment plan. Wearing the given aligner to the given tooth until the subsequent aligner is ready may be insufficient to maintain the given tooth in position due to the absence of the fixed connection.